The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports for Sand Mountain Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Sand Mountain Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Sand Mountain Field.

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Cones

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Central Group

Pyroclastic cone

44° 24' 0" N

121° 56' 0" W

Little Nash Crater

Pyroclastic cone

1255 m

44° 26' 0" N

121° 57' 0" W

Lost Lake Group

Pyroclastic cone

1458 m

44° 26' 0" N

121° 56' 0" W

Nash Crater

Pyroclastic cone

1462 m

44° 25' 0" N

121° 57' 0" W

Sand Mountain Cones

Pyroclastic cone

1664 m

44° 23' 0" N

121° 56' 0" W

South Group

Pyroclastic cone

44° 21' 0" N

121° 56' 0" W

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

LatitudeLongitude

322040

950 BCE

1664 m / 5459 ft

44.38°N
121.93°W

Volcano Types

Pyroclastic cone(s)

Rock Types

MajorBasalt / Picro-BasaltAndesite / Basaltic Andesite

Tectonic Setting

Subduction zoneContinental crust (> 25 km)

Population

Within 5 kmWithin 10 kmWithin 30 kmWithin 100 km

89
89
1,574
519,291

Geological Summary

The Sand Mountain volcanic field consists of a group of 23 basaltic and basaltic-andesite cinder cones along a N-S line immediately west of the Cascade crest NW of Mount Washington. Two cone alignments trending NNW and NNE intersect near the largest cinder cone, Sand Mountain. Although previous radiometric dates spanned a wide range of more than a thousand years, tightly constrained paleomagnetic ages imply that at least 13 eruptive units were emplaced in a relatively short period of time about 2950 years ago lasting at most a few decades. The Jack Pine vent at the northern end of the volcanic field is compositionally distinct from the rest of the volcanic field and is considered to have been erupted about 4000 years earlier. Lava flows traveled predominately to the west, blocking local drainages and forming several small lakes.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Sand Mountain Field.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Sand Mountain Field.

Photo Gallery

The Sand Mountain volcanic field contains a group of 23 cinder cones erupted along a N-S line NW of Mount Washington. Two cone alignments diverge at the highest cone, Sand Mountain; this view looks along the NNE alignment, with Mount Jefferson visible in the distance. The Sand Mountain cones and associated lava flows were erupted between about 3000 and 4000 years ago.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1981 (Smithsonian Institution).

Nash Crater cinder cone, viewed from Little Nash Crater to the NW, is part of a cone alignment that diverges to the NNW from Sand Mountain. Lava flows from Nash Crater were erupted about 3850 years ago and traveled to the west, where they blocked a stream drainage, forming Fish Lake.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1995 (Smithsonian Institution).

The flattened snow-covered summit of Little Nash Crater, a scoria cone of the Sand Mountain volcanic field in the central Oregon Cascades, has been extensively quarried to provide aggregate for highway construction. Reddish, oxidized scoria from Little Nash Crater can be seen in road surfaces in the Santiam Pass area.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1995 (Smithsonian Institution).

A blocky lava flow, still largely unvegetated, was erupted about 3850 years ago from Nash Crater in the Sand Mountain volcanic field of the central Oregon Cascades. This and contemporaneous lava flows blocked local drainages, forming Lava Lake and Fish Lake.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1995 (Smithsonian Institution).

Sahalie Falls were formed when lava flows from the Sand Mountain volcanic field that were erupted about 3000 years ago traveled to the west, blocking the channel of the ancestral McKenzie River. Wind-blown spray from the falls nourishes bright-green mosses that drape rocks around the falls.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1995 (Smithsonian Institution).

The Lost Lake cinder cones, seen here from the east across Lost Lake near Santiam Pass, are the youngest known volcanic products of the Sand Mountain volcanic field. The cones were formed about 1950 radiocarbon years ago during eruptions along a N-S-trending fissure at the northern end of the Sand Mountain cone group. Growth of the chain of cones blocked Lost Creek, forming Lost Lake.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1997 (Smithsonian Institution).

The snow-capped Sand Mountain cinder cones on the horizon were the source of the barren lava flow forming the far shore of Clear Lake. The lake was created when a series of lava flows erupted from the Sand Mountain volcanic field traveled to the west and blocked the drainage of the ancestral McKenzie River. Standing stumps of the forest drowned by the rising lake waters have been radiocarbon dated at about 3000 years ago and are still visible today.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1999 (Smithsonian Institution).

Fish Lake is an ephemeral lake on the western side of the Cascade Range crest that fills with water (as seen here after spring snow-melt) but drys up during the summer. The lake was formed when the Fish Lake lava flow from Nash Crater of the Sand Mountain volcanic field dammed local drainages. This flow and the Lava Lake flow from cinder cones at the northern half of the chain were both extruded about 3850 radiocarbon years ago.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1999 (Smithsonian Institution).

The Sand Mountain cinder cones rise to the WNW in late Spring across the still partially frozen surface of Big Lake. South (left) and North Sand Mountain cones are the largest of a group of 23 cinder cones along a N-S line immediately west of the Cascade crest, NW of Mount Washington. A series of young, sparsely vegetated lava flows reaching the valley of the McKenzie River originated from vents on the west side of the chain of cones and were erupted primarily during a 1000-year period from about 3000-4000 years ago.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 2000 (Smithsonian Institution).

GVP Map Holdings

The maps shown below have been scanned from the GVP map archives and include the volcano on this page. Clicking on the small images will load the full 300 dpi map. Very small-scale maps (such as world maps) are not included. The maps database originated over 30 years ago, but was only recently updated and connected to our main database. We welcome users to tell us if they see incorrect information or other problems with the maps; please use the Contact GVP link at the bottom of the page to send us email.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

External Sites

Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from volcanic activity.

Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.

The Sentinel Hub Playground provides a quick look at any Sentinel-2 image in any combination of the bands and enhanced with image effects; Landsat 8, DEM and MODIS are also available. Sentinel Hub is an engine for processing of petabytes of satellite data. It is opening the doors for machine learning and helping hundreds of application developers worldwide. It makes Sentinel, Landsat, and other Earth observation imagery easily accessible for browsing, visualization and analysis. Sentinel Hub is operated by Sinergise

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Sand Mountain Field. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Sand Mountain Field. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Mapping Gas Emissions (MaGa) Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO2 to the atmosphere, but installing CO2 monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).